


Sexual Healing

by Iron_Eirlyssa (Eirlyssa)



Series: Eirlyssa's 2018 Bingo Fills [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Consensual Infidelity, F/M, Healing Sex, M/M, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Tony Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Bingo 2018, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 09:13:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15021410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eirlyssa/pseuds/Iron_Eirlyssa
Summary: There's a reason Tony Stark slept with lots and lots of people. It didn't make sense, and he wasn't sure how to explain it (if he could explain it), but it was a reason.





	Sexual Healing

**Author's Note:**

> For my Tony Stark Bingo 2018, square T3: Healing Cock
> 
> I tried to be respectful - it's not my favourite trope, I'll admit, but like I said, I tried. If I inadvertently offended anyone with this, I would like to apologize.
> 
> As it is, I hope you enjoy it :)

It was really subtle at first.

There was a party, and a girl that smiled and laughed and yet Tony could somehow tell all Denise wanted to do was curl up in a corner and cry. So he tried to cheer her up, and they danced, and they ended up in bed together. She seemed better, the next day, and she smiled and meant it and they went their separate ways.

The next girl had mono. Tony didn’t know how he knew, but he did. But Kate was pretty, and she was nice to him, and they slept together that night. When the mono started clearing up before actually developing, it got his attention. Then again, it could happen. Tony had himself tested to be sure, but no traces of mono could be found.

When it happened again with a skinny girl whose eyes looked as though she was ancient, he really started paying attention. Miranda was sweet, but she seemed so very lost that it worried him. Except the morning after, she woke up with new energy and decided it was time to get psychological help. Seeing her, a few months after, she was healthier and her eyes sparkled.

And Tony wondered.

As a scientist, he started performing an experiment. He met Rebecca, and Irene, and Jordan, and then he met Chris and Courtney and Ron and he was starting to get a working theory. A weird working theory.

His final experiment was Ashley, who had a case of chlamydia Tony was pretty sure she had no idea about. He could be tested for it, and it would be easily treated with antibiotics.

Two weeks later, he was still clean, and so was Ashley.

He tried it a few more times, with a few different STDs, but he remained clean and his partners healed, partially or completely.

Tony had a small nervous breakdown.

As the years went on, he had many sexual partners. Sometimes they healed, sometimes they mentally improved and looked for help or learned better coping methods. It was subtle enough that people didn’t pick up on it, and Tony was fine with that. The last thing he wanted was for people to force themselves into having sex with him to get rid of whatever problems they were having. He flirted, he propositioned, but he never pushed.

Somewhere between Elaina’s MS and Shaun’s DID, he started wondering if the effect would increase with multiple encounters. Quite honestly, he didn’t expect to find out. Improved mental health also meant people were not interested in him - smart, rich and handsome, sure, but he was also an alcoholic playboy arms dealer with plenty of mental issues, and they deserved better than that.

Christine Everhart had very nice breasts, and a not so nice malignant tumor that most likely wouldn’t be discovered until it had spread. She was his last encounter before Afghanistan, and he just couldn’t bring himself to go back to his playboy ways after. For the first time, he found himself wishing someone else could help him the way he’d helped others. Maybe that way, he could find a way to deal with the constant pain and nightmares and flashbacks.

Then he was dying, and there wasn’t a lot of time left to help people out. His new PA had some definite dissociative problems, but she made it clear she wasn’t interested in sleeping with him, so he moved on, found other parties and other partners.

And then he lived, and Pepper showed an interest in him, and he really wanted to feel like someone wanted to help him instead.

He laughed (he didn’t cry) when he realized they drifted further apart every time they had sex.

The invasion and the wormhole happened (and there was so much wrong with Loki, and there was something wrong with Tony as well, because he’d been conditioned to get turned on when he sensed problems, physical or mental) and the Avengers happened (and none of them wanted him to help, no matter that he couldn’t because he had Pepper and he was loyal, and even if the sex meant nothing more to him than putting a band-aid on someone, no matter how good he was at it, he knew it was different for her) and he could feel himself falling apart.

It was a mutual breakup. She deserved the world, deserved to be the world for someone. He was a mess and he needed to save the world, by fighting and by fucking, and he’d give it up for her except that only made him sink further away.

None of the Avengers wanted him, still.

Then Steve returned with Bucky, and Tony could feel the arousal he’d inadvertently conditioned himself to feel. He pushed it away and flirted as he always did, and Bucky smiled and Steve kept his best friend far away from Tony’s corrupting influence.

Except Bucky didn’t want to be kept away. To Tony’s astonishment, even after they had sex and Bucky started learning to deal with what had happened to him, started improving mentally, the super soldier kept coming back. Not just to have Tony fuck him (which would have been fair - the amount of issues that man had, one time was just a start) but to spend time with him, to talk and watch movies and cuddle and go out with.

Tony wondered if he’d accidentally stumbled into a relationship. It was smooth enough he wasn’t even sure he minded.

There was a gala, and Kim was an absolute sweetheart whose kidneys would give out somewhere in the next month. But he had Bucky now.

Except Bucky smiled at him, and kissed him, and told him to go.

Tony asked if he was sure.

Bucky said yes, and he smiled, and he looked like he meant it.

He slept with Kim, and she’d go on to develop a way to purify water that would change the world instead of dying in three months.

When he returned home, Bucky was waiting for him, and still smiling. He kissed Tony gently, like he meant it. And he didn’t leave. Instead, he told Tony it was fine, and to go for it (except he’d like to know beforehand so he knew not to worry about where Tony was).

Tony was terrified.

But Bucky meant it. He didn’t leave, and all he did whenever Tony told him he’d be sleeping with someone else was to kiss him and tell him he’d be there when Tony got back. And he was, every time.

Most others didn’t understand (sometimes Tony didn’t understand). Steve disapproved, but Bucky told him to back off. Natasha disapproved, her looks silent but deadly, and Bucky only glared back to make her stop. Clint disapproved and made terrible jokes, and sometimes Tony actually found them funny (although most of the time they were kind of hurtful and Bucky glared at Clint, too). Bruce just shrugged and accepted it was none of his business, and Tony appreciated it more than he could say. Thor laughed and wished them the best of luck together, and both Tony and Bucky smiled at him. Sam disapproved, and Bucky told him it was none of his business. Pepper disapproved, but she didn’t say so and let them be, even though Tony could tell she didn’t get it. Rhodey just smiled and seemed to genuinely like Bucky (he was the best friend ever).

Much, much later, Tony asked. Bucky hadn’t known at first, not until his trigger words became ineffective without any other explanation. He’d had his suspicions, but decided it didn’t matter. Tony mattered. And when he realized, he didn’t want to stand in the way of Tony helping people. He knew he was the only one Tony loved romantically, and that was all he needed.

Tony cried.

They stuck together, and grew stronger, and they switched positions so Bucky could make very, very sure Tony knew this wasn’t just about the healing. This was more.

And it might not actually heal him, but the love Bucky felt for him left Tony feeling like he could face the world. He was happy.


End file.
